This function implements the interface I described in Re^2: Abritrary multiple spaces as delimiter. You call it like so:

unpack_fields(
    $record,
    \my $num    => 7,
    padding     => 1,
    \my $title  => 27,
    padding     => 1,
    \my $author => 25,
    padding     => 1,
    \my $flag1  => 1,
    padding     => 5,
    \my $flag2  => 1,
);

[download]

I assume this is self explanatory. :)

# this would be much easier in Perl 6

sub unpack_fields {
    my $record = shift;

    my @var;

    my $template = join " ", map {
        my ($field, $width) = splice @_, 0, 2;
        push @var, $field if ref $field;
        ( ref $field ? 'A' : 'x' ) . $width;
    } 0 .. $#_ / 2;

    my @value = unpack $template, $record;

    ${ shift @var } = shift @value while @value;
}

[download]

In reply to Yet another unpack wrapper: flatfile databases with fixed width fields by Aristotle

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.